Spits' Johnston `excited' as invitation arrives for World Junior camp
Local OHL products Tullio and Brochu also have chance to make U20 squad
Windsor Spitfires forward Wyatt Johnston was one of three players with local ties invited by Hockey Canada to attend the program's U20 World Junior Hockey Championship camp in Calgary.
Johnston was part of Canada's gold-medal winning under-18 team at this year's world championship and will be joined at the 51-player selection camp by two locals, Lakeshore's Ty Tullio and Brett Brochu.
“I was super excited and super honoured,” the 18-year-old Johnston said.
“It's always pretty special when you get a chance to represent your country and be a part of Hockey Canada.”
The camp is set to run from July 28 to Aug. 4 and serves as the first step toward selecting this year's roster for the World Junior Championship, which is set for Dec. 26 to Jan. 5 in Alberta.
“The way I'm going to approach it is to do the best I can and make the best impression I can while trying to learn and improve,” said Johnston, who is up for this year's NHL Draft.
The 19-year-old Tullio, who was a fifth-round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers last year, plays for the Oshawa Generals while the 18-year-old Brochu, who plays for the London Knights and attended the program's virtual camp last summer, is also up for this year's NHL draft.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
While the Windsor Spitfires will play the 2021-22 season strictly against Western Conference rivals, the club will face a couple of Eastern Conference teams in exhibition play.
The Spitfires will face the Sting in Sarnia on Sept. 17 to open exhibition play with the club returning home to play the Sting on Sept. 19.
The Spitfires then head to the Eastern Conference to play the Bulldogs in Hamilton on Sept. 24 with Hamilton returning to Windsor to face the Spitfires on Oct. 26.
Windsor closes out exhibition play with an Oct. 1 match in Oshawa against the Generals with the Spitfires returning home Oct. 3 to face the Generals.
All three of Windsor's home exhibition games will be played on a Sunday at the WFCU Centre with a starting time of 4:05 p.m.
TV DEAL
The Canadian Hockey League announced on Wednesday it will shift games over to TSN, RDS and CBC as part of a multi-year, multi-platform broadcast rights partnership starting with the 2021-22 season.
Sportsnet had broadcast CHL games since 1998, but the new deal will see 20 French-language games broadcast as well as early season games on the weekend being broadcast on CBC and TSN will broadcast a game each week during the regular season.